When new regions are explored and the animals in them discovered, how does the wider world get to experience these species? From the earliest days of exploration, art has been essential in representing creatures that are alien to people at home.

The Strange Creatures exhibition will explore the world of animal representations, featuring the painting of a kangaroo by George Stubbs which was recently saved for the nation. It was painted following Captain Cook’s first “Voyage of Discovery” and is Europe’s first image of an Australian animal.

Palaeontologists and historians of science, exploration and art from across University College London will tell stories from their own disciplines. Featuring medieval accounts of exotic creatures, art from the ages of exploration and empire, contemporary taxidermy and reconstructions of dinosaurs based on cutting-edge engineering principles, this exhibition questions how unknown animals are communicated to the wider public.

Strange Creatures: the art of the unknown animals, is part of Travellers' Tails a collaboration between Royal Museums Greenwich and four partner museums to investigate the history of exploration, art and science.

Eights in the Octagon: Medieval and Renaissance Perspectives

Inspired by the Octagon’s shape and location, historians of science and culture investigate the number eight as a significant principle in Medieval and Renaissance systems of measurement, cosmology, design and creativity.

Heroes from the dark or light side?: Ancient and modern heroes versus the Minotaur

Join us for a glass of wine, a quality screening and an erudite introduction. In the pilot episode from BBC Atlantis ‘The Earth Bull’ from 2013 a modern hero from the light side Jason confronts the dark monster, the Minotaur. Like the hero from Greek myth, Theseus, Jason saves the lives of his companions who would be sacrificed to the beast. But in BBC Doctor Who ‘The God Complex’ from 2011 when the Doctor meets the Minotaur there turn out to be more similarities than differences between hero and monster, and the boundaries between dark and light, hero and monster become blurred.

The screening will be accompanied by a talk from Amanda Potter on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and aspects of dark and light in different versions of this story

The Light Project - Innovations

PhD student, Meghan Strong (Cambridge), is researching how the Ancient Egyptians illuminated the world around them. She will share her insights from working with lamps in the Petrie Collection, including a discussion of the importance of lighting in temples, tombs and the afterlife. Join us then to recreate lighting a temple outside the museum.

Draw it Like Stubbs

Strange Creatures After HoursThe night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

What animal could you draw from just written descriptions made by sailors who compared something to a greyhound, wild dog, hare, deer, goat, mouse, jerboa and sheep? A kangaroo? Well that’s what George Stubbs did. Join us for a fun evening of light-hearted drawing of animals based on contemporary and historical descriptions, can you draw it like Stubbs did?

The Light Project - Symbolism

An evening of light offerings – getting to grips with the ancient symbolism of the hieroglyphs and looking at what was involved in making offerings at the temple and how that involved light. Ildiko Kalnoky and Louise Atherton, UCL MA Egyptology students, offer an interactive workshop. Join Output Arts SAND light installation outside the museum where you can make your own hieroglyphs light up.

Creating Strange Creatures

The Museum has many amazing animals on display but some have to be seen to be believed. Come along and be inspired by the natural world to create your own animal artwork with a Museum artist inspired by George Stubbs’ painting of the kangaroo.

Re-Launch

Re-Launch is UCL Art Museum's inaugural exhibition that marks the reopening of our space after a programme of improvements.

Re-Launch presents a selection of objects, prints and video made in response to our collections and the theme of re-launch. Its contributors hail from the Slade School of Fine Art and have participated as students in our celebrated annual Slade/UCL Art Museum collaborations over the course of the past six years. While some artists investigate the sculptures, prints and drawings within our collections, others experiment with the physical spaces of the Museum to either exploit or explode notions of the archive and its structure.

The Light Project - Capturing Light

A chance to explore the Petrie Archive Collection of photographs and filmed excavations looking at the role of photography and film in early archaeology with historian Amara Thornton (UCL Institute of Archaeology) and colleagues from the Filming Antiquities project.

Book via http://petrielightcapture.eventbrite.co.uk. Doors open 6pm, event starts at 6.30pm.

On Light

Date: 1 - 4 May (with UCL activities taking place on 2 May) | Time: 7pm - 11pm, 1 May and 1pm -6pm, 2-4 May | Location: Malet Place, UCL, WC1E and Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE | Price: All activities are FREE. Drop in any time. Some activities will be ticketed, check the Wellcome Collection website at the start of April for full details | Age group: Adults

Light is the stuff of magic, but it’s so ubiquitous we can take it for granted. Although the sun is our source of energy, the light that it produces has huge impacts on us far beyond the functional. Join us for a long weekend of performance, discussions, installations and walks that illuminate our complex human relationship with light. Along with bacteriologists, historians, artists and architects, we’ll explore the cultural and scientific importance of light.

'On Light' sees UCL collaborating with the Wellcome Collection on an eclectic weekender of activities and events. UCL based activities will take place on Saturday 2 May from 1 to 6 pm on Malet Place, including an open afternoon at the Institute of Making, and 'The Cabinet' presented by UCL Museums and Collections. Events will be taking place at the Wellcome Collection from Friday 1 May through to Monday 4 May.

Show 'n' Tell: Dinosaurs

We have invited the co-curators of the Strange Creatures exhibition to showcase an object from the Museum’s collection of 68,000 to share their Strange Creatures research Dr. Andrew Cuff Misha Ewen will be joining us after having rummaged through the drawers and cupboards to choose his object. Find out more about Andrew’s cutting edge research reconstructing dinosaurs from just the fossils of these extinct giant reptiles.

Don’t worry if you can’t stay for the whole hour, doors open at 1pm with the talk starting at 1:15pm and lasts around 30 minutes after which the speaker will be on hand to show you in more detail his chosen object for the last 15 minutes. Stay for the whole hour or just dip in for the talk over your lunchtime and discover the stories hidden away in our collection.

Draw it Like Stubbs

Strange Creatures After HoursThe night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

What animal could you draw from just written descriptions made by seamen who compared something to a greyhound, wild dog, hare, deer, goat, mouse, jerboa and sheep? A kangaroo? Well that’s what George Stubbs did. Join us for a fun evening of light-hearted drawing of animals based on contemporary and historical descriptions, can you draw it like Stubbs did?

The Light Project - All that glitters: Egyptian Light in London

Join Debbie Challis (UCL Petrie) at Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment and a walk to Monument for a look at how Ancient Egyptian beliefs about capturing light has influenced more modern ideas. How does a pyramidion work? What does a prism do? Where does the sun make London glitter?

A UCL Museums Murder Mystery

Back by popular demand is Museum Murder Mystery. Join UCL Museums for an evening of dark noir, intrigue and subterfuge for Museums at Night. Are you a Sherlock or a Sarah Lund or a Jessica Fletcher or a Poirot or even a Cagney and Lacey? We need your help to discover the murderer in our cast of characters, solve the clues across the Museum to crack the UCL Museums murder mystery. Team of up to five with prizes to be won for the team who can solve the case as well as for best dressed detectives on the night.

Strange Creatures at Night

Strange Creatures After HoursThe night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

Come visit the Grant Musuem of Zoology for a very special late opening of the new Strange Creatures: the art of unknown animal exhibition. Join us for an evening of art, performance, games and live taxidermy over a glass of wine or beer to take another look at the natural world.

Great Grant Knit-a-Thon

Strange Creatures After HoursThe night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

Inspired by artist Ruth Marshall’s knitted skin of a Tasmanian tiger, we have set the knitters of London the challenge of knitting the skins animals, in just 12 HOURS. Bring your knitting needles to stitch one, purl one for an hour over lunch or come after work and be inspired to join in over a glass of wine while you view the exhibition. Throughout the day hear from Strange Creatures co-curator Sarah Wade to find out how natural history museums can use contemporary art and craft to engage visitors.

This event is free and there is no need to book, drop in at any point over the day.

Games at the Grant

Shuffle your cards and roll a dice to win on this night of fun and fierce competition. UCL researchers inspired by art, language and literature and the animals will be your games masters at this evening event held at the Grant Museum of Zoology. This event is part of UCL’s Festival of the Arts

Show 'n' Tell: Tastes just like...

We have invited the co-curators of the Strange Creatures exhibition to showcase an object from the Museum’s collection of 68,000 to share their Strange Creatures research. Misha Ewen will be joining us after having rummaged through the drawers and cupboards to choose her object. Find out more about Misha’s work on the history of the first colonists to settle in Virginia and the animals they encountered (and ate).

Don’t worry if you can’t stay for the whole hour, doors open at 1pm with the talk starting at 1:15pm and lasts around 30 minutes after which the speaker will be on hand to show you in more detail her chosen object for the last 15 minutes. Stay for the whole hour or just dip in for the talk over your lunchtime and discover the stories hidden away in our collection. This event is free and there is no need to book.

Creating Strange Creatures

The Museum has many amazing animals on display but some have to be seen to be believed. Come along and be inspired by the natural world to create your own animal artwork with a Museum artist inspired by George Stubbs’ painting of the kangaroo.

The night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

What animal could you draw from just written descriptions made by drunken seamen who compared something to a greyhound, wild dog, hare, deer, goat, mouse, jerboa and sheep? A kangaroo? Well that’s what George Stubbs did. Join us for a fun evening of light-hearted drawing of animals based on contemporary and historical descriptions, can you draw it like Stubbs did?

Re-Launch in conversation – Janne Malmros

Re-Launch artist and Slade alumna Janne Malmros leads us in a hunt in UCL Art Museum. The process of finding and amassing images from the collection highlights ways in which she’s worked with the museum and other collections to unearth and layer elements of other works of art into a new creation.

Petrie Film Club presents Gallipoli (1981)

Join us for a glass of wine, a quality screening and an erudite introduction. Featuring a section in Cairo, the film focuses on the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 two months after the Petrie Museum opened in London. The disastrous campaign led to the adoption of a different strategy, involving T E Lawrence, in Middle East diplomacy and politics, the repercussions of which are still felt today.

Introduced by Debbie Challis (UCL Petrie) who will look at the political context at the time of the Petrie Museum opening to the public in 1915 as part of the Centenary celebrations.

Show 'n' Tell: Australian Encounters

We have invited the co-curators of the Strange Creatures exhibition to showcase an object from the Museum’s collection of 68,000 to share their Strange Creatures research. Professor Margot Finn will be joining us after having rummaged through the drawers and cupboards to choose her object. Find out more Margot’s research on the history of Australia’s first European settlers and their experiences of the almost unbelievable world they encountered.

Don’t worry if you can’t stay for the whole hour, doors open at 1pm with the talk starting at 1:15pm and lasts around 30 minutes after which the speaker will be on hand to show you in more detail her chosen object for the last 15 minutes. Stay for the whole hour or just dip in for the talk over your lunchtime and discover the stories hidden away in our collection.

Focus on the Positive

Worried about the world's problems? Focus on the Positive is an event that gives you a chance to make things better. Join us to hear UCL researchers pitch their ideas, and you can actually help to decide which ones will get funded.

The winning researcher gets a £2000 prize to fix the world and one runner up wins £1000.

For a very special Focus on the Positive, the Grant Museum welcomes some of UCL’s inspiring researchers who will tackle the big issues of today, inspired by the collection. They might want to use the money to bring their research into the real world, start a project or work with a charity. It’s a great opportunity to debate some big questions, meet people who are passionate about changing the world, and make a difference.

This event is free and there is no need to book, during the evening there will be a paid bar with all proceeds going conservation of our historic collection.

Characters and Collections book launch

Characters and Collections, a new book on the centenary of The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, is published this week by UCL Publishing. Join us for a launch where characters behind this world class collection come to life in the museum on the 100th anniversary of being open to the public.

Looking at Strange Creatures: A Travellers' Tails Seminar Day

Take a closer look at some strange creatures with our seminar study day and find out more about how art has been used to communicate unknown animals to the world. Over the course of the day you’ll hear from some of our exhibition co-curators, have a private viewing of the Strange Creatures and get up close to some of our amazing specimens. The day will include time for audience questions and an opportunity to talk with the experts during refreshment breaks.

Strange Creatures: the art of the unknown animals, is part of Travellers' Tails, a collaboration between Royal Museums Greenwich and four partner museums to investigate the history of exploration, art and science funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Art Fund.

DINOSAURS! Of Victorian London

Strange Creatures After HoursThe night owls amongst you can join the bats, aardvarks, hedgehogs and other nocturnal specimens to enjoy Strange Creatures After Hours. Animals have been presented in bizarre and the incredible ways, come take another look at the natural world with our film night, late opening, open mic night, talks and drawing sessions.

The Crystal Palace dinosaur models were unveiled in 1854 and took the world by storm starting the original Dinomania. These beastly models were the first anyone had ever seen of dinosaurs and left a lasting impression. Join historian of science and Strange Creatures co-curator Professor Joe Cain as he shares how these models, still on display today, were important in shaping the public’s perceptions of dinosaurs. This event is followed by free drinks reception and a private view of the Strange Creatures exhibition.

Creating Strange Creatures

The Museum has many amazing animals on display but some have to be seen to be believed. Come along and be inspired by the natural world to create your own animal artwork with a Museum artist inspired by George Stubbs’ painting of the kangaroo.

Empire of the Ants (1977)

Described as a cross between Love Boat and Jaws the Grant Museum of Zoology Film Club presents EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. With a star studded cast that includes Joan Collins and Robert Lansing, Empire of the Ants presents a world where these insects have grown to gigantic proportions and enslaved the human race. Join Historian of Biology and film-buff Professor Joe Cain who will introduce the film. You’ll never look at ants in the same way again. The film is followed by a free drinks reception in a private view of the Museum.